1. Webinar Series Multilevel Governance
“There will always remain blind spots...”
Learning to act under uncertainty
Yale
# 5

2. Yale
211 Your Webinar in 2013

3. 211 What we have covered
Yale
November 2012
Professor
Environmental Governance &
Political Science, Yale University
Prof. Ben Cashore

4. 211 What we have covered
Yale
December 2012
Dr. Chris Elliott
Member Advisory Board
GEM Initiative, Yale University
Executive Director – Climate and
Land Use Alliance

5. February 2013
Alexander Buck
Executive Director
International Union of Forest
Research Organizations (IUFRO)
Member Advisory Board
GEM Initiative, Yale University
211 What we have covered
Yale

6. April 2013
Dr. Patrick Verkooijen
Special Representative
for Climate Change
Office of the Vice President, SDN
The World Bank
Member Advisory Board
GEM Initiative, Yale University
211 What we have covered
Yale

7. The big topics in Wind Energy211 Blind-spotting / Uncertainty in Decision-Making
Yale
- Relevant knowledge for decisions
- Not taken into account in practical
management
- Sources of blind spots
- How to act with uncertainty
- Social Learning and
organisational approaches

8. Your scholars today:
DR. JAN SCHWAAB
Chief Knowledge Manager
Global Knowledge Cooperation /
Alumni Coordination, GIZ
Knowledge Manager 2005 Award
GEM Advisory Board, Yale University
Yale

9. Your scholars today:
DANIELA GÖHLER
GIZ, Advisor in the
Federal Ministry for the Environment,
Nature Conservation and Nuclear
Safety (BMU)
GEM Member, Yale University
Yale

10. − Our actions are guided by sustainability
− We manage change (advisory and practical services, wide range of
sectors, on behalf of clients inside Germany and around the world
− Owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, organised as a private-
sector entity
− Operations in Germany and in over 130 countries around the world,
around 17,000 employees, business volume of some 2 billion
euros in 2011
− We work innovatively (learning organisation, knowledge sharing,
mobilize networks)
211 About GIZ
Yale

11. − The webinar – again – highlighted that sustainable low-carbon
societies (/economies) require “multi sectoral”, “multi stakeholder”
“integrated”, “multi dimensional” approaches 0
− Each webinar showed a specific approach, but each time new
questions emerged (as usual0) – most of them raised by the critical
online community/participants
− Technical perspectives alone rarely suffice – strong institutional,
methodological and human capacities are indispensable
− Throughout the webinar series we have learned that relevant
solutions are to be found “in-between” different perspectives,
approaches, disciplines, institutions00.
212
Yale
Some observations

12. Apparently,
we have some “blind spots”2
212
Yale
Some observations

14. But how to address the super-wicked problems?
How do we avoid mis-management?
Solving
deforestation
through
multilevel
learning

15. But how to address the super-wicked problems?
How do we avoid mis-management?
What can we learn from practice?
Solving
deforestation
through
multilevel
learning
Improving
land use
manageme
nt through
learning
from
evaluations
But do we ask the relevant questions?
What about the unintended positive and
negatve impacts?

16. But how to address the super-wicked problems?
How do we avoid mis-management?
What can we learn from practice?
But do we ask the relevant questions?
What about the unintended positive and
negatve impacts?
What do we need to know for policy learning?
Solving
deforestation
through
multilevel
learning
Improving
land use
manageme
nt through
learning
from
evaluations
Learning in
Forest Governance…
through linking forest
research institutions

17. But how to address the super-wicked problems?
How do we avoid mis-management?
What can we learn from practice?
Is the mainstream right?
What about the selfishness of institutions?
Who transforms knowledge into action?
Is it okay to reduce the issues to a cost-benefit decision?
Solving
deforestation
through
multilevel
learning
Improving
land use
manageme
nt through
learning
from
evaluations
Learning in
Forest Governance…
through linking forest
research institutions
Ending Poverty
and Building
Shared Prosperity
by Tackling
Climate Change
But do we ask the relevant questions?
What about the unintended positive and
negatve impacts?
What do we need to know for policy learning?

18. But how to address the super-wicked problems?
How do we avoid mis-management?
What can we learn from practice?
Is the mainstream right?
What about the selfishness of institutions?
Who transforms knowledge into action?
Is it okay to reduce the issues to a cost-benefit decision?
Solving
deforestation
through
multilevel
learning
Improving
land use
manageme
nt through
learning
from
evaluations
Learning in
Forest Governance…
through linking forest
research institutions
Ending Poverty
and Building
Shared Prosperity
by Tackling
Climate Change
But do we ask the relevant questions?
What about the unintended positive and
negatve impacts?
What do we need to know for policy learning?
How do we cope with
blind spots?

19. Solving
deforestation
through
multilevel
learning
Improving
land use
manageme
nt through
learning
from
evaluations
Learning in
Forest Governance…
through linking forest
research institutions
Ending Poverty
and Building
Shared Prosperity
by Tackling
Climate Change
Another
issue
with
another
approach
Another
issue
with
another
approach

20. 213 A vicious cycle
Yale
The curious case of
legality verification
No REDD+
without FLEG
„deforestation
free“ products?
System complexity
Uncertainty
„Archaic“
decision
patterns
Acceleration
Inter-dependency

21. 213 Blind spotting by2
Yale
System complexity
Uncertainty
„Archaic“
decision
patterns
Acceleration
Inter-dependency
... policy learning
... network-based
innovation processes
... robust
leadership skills
... institutional
intersection
Focus on...

22. Focus on policy learning
− Cashore: causal knowledge about policy instruments
− Review hypotheses, unlike consensus dialogues
− Multitude of perspectives necessary
• Elliot: cross-sectoral perspective landscapes
• Verkooijen: look through “climate lens” forests as
part of low carbon pathways
− Example: the curious case of legality verification, triple win
of climate smart agriculture
− Policy learning can reduce the number of blind spots
if inter-dependencies are successfully addressed
214
Yale

23. − Challenge: sectoral set-up of institutions does not respond to
cross-sectoral problems
− Cashore: promote “policy baskets” (Gunningham)
− Buck: policy assessments important, e.g. GFEP
− Elliot: engage the private sector
− Joint agenda “climate lens”?
− Examples: legality verification / forest certification, REDD+ /
FLEG(T)
− Institutional intersection mitigates risks from blind spots
if robust leadership copes with acceleration
215 Focus on institutional intersection
Yale

24. − 3 Competence clusters (cooperative
transformational, innovative action)
− Management principles based on peer-
learning, reflection (theory “U”), rapid proto-
typing, process orientation and openness
− Elliot: evaluate your own work using your
networks
− Robust Leadership skills enable rapid coping
with blind spots
216 Focus on robust leadership skills
Yale

25. − Buck: from knowledge transfer model to network model of
knowledge diffusion
− Fast access to knowledge and ideas
− Make use of social networks
− Management challenge: organisational integration of networks
(governance issue)
− Example: GEM as a global learning initiative = “connecting the
dots” (e.g. link networks through advisory board)
− Networks can reduce size of blind spots
217 Focus on network-based innovation processes
Yale

26. 218 Managing the unmanageable?
Yale